Episode Addition: Series Three, Episode Eight
by Julie Ann Pope
Summary: an addition to the final scene as I thought there was something (or more specifically someone) missing


**Post Episode Eight**

"What do you think this is, Life on Mars?" Gill jested and both Rachel and Janet grinned at the light humour. There was a brief knock at Gill's bedroom door before it opened to reveal Julie Dodson all dressed up in her party gear. She looked very different to earlier when she had been elbow deep in co-ordinating Gill's rescue at Manchester Metropolitan Police's HQ.

"Dave said you were up here. Oh, hello, didn't realise you two were here as well." Julie was a little put out to find that she had been beaten to being Gill's first visitor. She'd been caught up in all the paperwork associated with Gill's rescue operation and the Assistant Chief Con had requested a face to face debrief which had resulted in her dissecting the whole thing piece by excruciating piece.

"Yeah, hi." Janet replied and Rachel nodded by way of a greeting. Gill patted the empty space on the bed beside her and gestured for Julie to sit there. The DSI kicked off her heels and perched on top of the bed just like Janet and Rachel had done at the foot of it. Gill drunkenly shook her head and beckoned the older woman closer. Julie raised her eyebrows and indicated the other two women in the room with a nod of her head in their direction.

"I don't care, just get your arse over here." Julie shuffled around until she was fully on the bed and then curled herself around Gill, wrapping her arms around her waist from behind. Gill snuggled up to her companion with the back of her head on Julie's chest. She angled herself back slightly to give Julie a brief kiss on the lips before facing her other guests once again. Janet and Rachel couldn't help but gawp with their mouths open. "My hero," Gill wistfully sighed up at Julie, unaware or uncaring of the stir she'd just created.

"Hardly, those two did most of the work. I just watched and barked out orders when required." Julie couldn't have coped with anyone else in charge of the operation and had needed to be proactive and in the middle of things rather than a simple bystander otherwise she would have fallen apart.

"I'm not sure we did that much more to be honest, you held your own quite firmly there Gill." Janet had recovered her voice despite being confused about what was going on in the room.

"It was a relief to know that you were there at the end. I just wish we could have saved her…" Julie squeezed Gill tighter in a gesture of comfort.

"Not if we'd have lost you in the process." Gill wasn't going to get into an argument with Julie there and then but they would need to talk about it in more detail at some point.

"So are you two…you know… or what?" It was so very like Rachel to get straight to the point and address the elephant in the room.

"Rachel!" Janet chastised her, although she was grateful that someone had brought it up.

"No, it's fine. I sort of wanted you to ask." Gill looked up at Julie and raised a questioning eyebrow, seeking permission to disclose.

"It's up to you love." Gill sat up straighter and held onto the arms around her waist.

"Yes, we're together."

"How long?" Rachel asked her boss.

"Oh…six months or so?" Gill doubled checked with Julie who nodded her head in agreement.

"How did you just do what you did?" Janet addressed Julie, shocked that they'd just spent most of the day together saving Gill's life and she'd not realised this vital piece of information about them.

"I didn't have any other choice. I wouldn't have been much good to Gill an emotional wreck. I needed to make sure she came back to us safely." Gill stroked Julie's arm gently in an attempt to return some of the comfort she was giving her.

"You kept control all the way through and we had absolutely no clue. I'm not sure I could have done that." Janet responded in awe of her senior officer.

"Me neither." Rachel agreed, looked at Janet and couldn't resist giving her shoulder a squeeze. She'd come close to losing her twice, once through the stabbing and this time their argument over the whole Kevin/Sean debacle. Now that they had made it up she wasn't prepared to jeopardise it ever again.

"You do what you have to do when the time comes. It's surprising how much you can focus in a situation like that." Julie gave Gill a kiss to the side of her head, unfortunately in her position from behind it was more hair than anything else but the gesture was the same.

"Does Sammy know? What about Dave?" Janet asked her long-time friend.

"Good lord no! Dave can't find out for as long as humanly possible. Sammy knows and is absolutely fine with it, he adores Julie." Gill remembered when they'd spoken to the teenager about their relationship and he'd politely requested to speak to Julie alone. Gill had pretended to go into another room out of earshot but had actually stayed close by to listen to the conversation. Sammy had grilled Julie about her intentions and the fact that he didn't ever want to see his mum so let down and heartbroken by someone she loved and trusted again. Julie had reassured him that she didn't take their relationship lightly and that she loved Gill very much. Then he had come out with the fact that he was thrilled to have her as his 'step-mum' to which Julie was a bit surprised and suggested that he was jumping the gun slightly. He had explained that she'd always been special to him, much more so than just a friend of his mum's or an aunt-like figure. They had really bonded during that chat and Gill had come away from it in floods of proud tears. She had no doubt that had the worst happened today the two of them would have helped each other through it.

"I'm glad, he's a good lad." Janet had seen him grow up and fortunately not lose any of the sensitivity he'd shown as a kid, despite the best efforts of his father.

The noise of the frivolity going on downstairs filtered through Gill's bedroom walls and there was a moment of silence as they listened to it.

"Could you give us a few minutes alone?" Julie asked Janet and Rachel politely.

"Of course, we'll see you downstairs." Janet got up off Gill's bed and pulled a dawdling Rachel along behind her. Rachel didn't take hints well and wanted to quiz her senior officers more about their romance. As soon as the bedroom door had closed behind them Julie grew serious and pushed Gill off her slightly so they could look at each other properly.

"What's the idea?" Julie asked her lover accusingly.

"What do you mean?" Gill wasn't entirely sure she knew what Julie was talking about, although she had an inkling and wasn't willing to acknowledge it.

"The alcohol." Gill harrumphed in frustration. She knew that turning to the bottle was wrong deep down but after the initial hugs when she had first arrived back home, she had helped Sammy and Dave to finish decorating the house, had a shower and changed into her party gear. It had been too much and as she had stared in the mirror putting on her make up she had broken down. There was no way she could get through the party in that state and had turned to the gin in order to dull her feelings and the thoughts whirling around her head.

"I just needed something to take the edge off, it was a bit of an ordeal you know." There was a mild accusation in her tone that Julie had not been there when she had come home although she know perfectly well that if she could have she would have been the first person to greet her.

"I know but you need to talk to me Gill, not shut me out and drink it all away. It didn't do Helen any good." Julie hoped that she wasn't going to see the incredibly strong DCI fall apart over this and that she'd use the friends and family around her to recover.

"I don't want to argue Julie. Please don't lecture me, not now." Julie sighed and knew that she was temporarily beaten. She didn't want to distress Gill more than she was already although she did want her to know that she wasn't going to get away with not speaking about it forever.

"I'll let it go for now so we can enjoy Sammy and Orla's party but we will talk about this." Gill went silent on Julie as though she were sulking. "I'm only concerned because I love you. I could have lost you today Gill and I don't want to come even remotely close again."

**Later.**

Gill's bedroom door was flung open as she and Julie crashed through in a tangled mass of arms and lips. As soon as they had closed the door behind them clothes were pulled and torn off as though they were on fire. It wasn't romantic, it was instinctive, primal and desperate. Both women dealing with the aftermath of the day's ordeal physically in order to make some sort of sense emotionally. Gill just needed to feel; alive, loved and reconnected to everything she had faced losing. Julie had distanced herself from the event emotionally in order to lead the rescue mission and needed to reconnect those emotions with the woman she loved. They kissed and touched each other without grace, Gill commanded Julie to give her more, harder and faster, bruising and relentless so that she came and came again exhausting any residual energy she had left after her ordeal. Julie's needs were temporarily forgotten about as Gill broke down and sobbed in her arms, aftershocks of her orgasms still going through her as well as the expulsion of her built up emotions. Julie could only hold her tightly as she cried and couldn't stop her own tears from rapidly falling. They eventually fell into a messy, wet slumber completely drained physically and emotionally.

When they awoke the next morning they took their time to make love; intense and passionate and so full of the love they had found in each other. Later they would talk the whole thing through and help each other to heal. It would be a slow road to recovery but it was a good place to start.


End file.
